Astronomers have pulled off an interesting magic trick and made two planets appear. Since they appeared in a planetary system that already had seven, it gives that planetary system a total of nine, making it the most planet-rich system we’re aware of (since our own has only eight). It may further its lead in the future, as well, as the authors conclude that there’s not enough data yet to identify an Earth-sized planet.

Astronomers have pulled off an interesting magic trick and made two planets appear. Since they appeared in a planetary system that already had seven, it gives that planetary system a total of nine, making it the most planet-rich system we’re aware of (since our own has only eight). It may further its lead in the future, as well, as the authors conclude that there’s not enough data yet to identify an Earth-sized planet.

Kuwaiti writer Mohammed Al-Mulaifi was sentenced to seven years of hard labor in prison yesterday for slander and defamation against the country’s Shi’ite minority on his Twitter account. He said members of the country’s Shi’ite Muslim minority were loyal to foreign countries due to their alleged foreign origin. He was also fined US$18,000.

Kuwait is split 70/30 between its Sunni and Shi’ite citizens. It has laws that forbid the maligning of either expression of Islam.

The Kuwait Times said, “Al-Mulaifi was accused of broadcasting untrue news on his Twitter blog about the existence of racial and sectarian division within the Kuwaiti community, and of accusing some citizens of affiliations to foreign countries. Al-Mulaifi was found guilty of undermining the Shiite doctrine and insulting Shiite scholars.”

He was also charged for his accusations that Kuwaiti parliamentarian Ahmed Lari was of non-Kuwaiti origin and for slandering a Shi’ite religious figure, Imam Al-Mahdi.

The court’s statement said he was convicted because he communicated “falsehoods about sectarian divisions” in Kuwait via Twitter and because he “insulted the Shiite faith and its scholars.” His tweets, said the ruling, “damaged Kuwait’s image.”

Al-Mulaifi was arrested in February after Shi’ite Kuwaitis, including members of the government, vociferously protested his tweets.

Twitter is popular in Kuwait, as it is in the rest of the Gulf States. Kuwait is not alone in seeing a surprising number of its users get in trouble for their tweets, usually statements of a religious nature. In neighboring Saudi Arabia, Hamza Kashgari tweeted statements that inspired public anger, which was in turn fanned by internal political elements resentful of the liberalization of the country. Kashgari was intercepted in Malaysia after fleeing the kingdom in fear.

Not all Kuwaitis support the sentence. Kuwait Times reported that international lawyer and arbitrator Labeed Abdal is calling on the Kuwaiti Government to clarify the limit of the rights and freedom of expression.

“Interpretation must be thoroughly studied and properly identified,” said Abdal, “In [Al-Mulaifi’s] case, they are mixing it with personality and politics. Also, punishment must be adjusted to the crime committed.”

Kuwaiti writer Mohammed Al-Mulaifi was sentenced to seven years of hard labor in prison yesterday for slander and defamation against the country’s Shi’ite minority on his Twitter account. He said members of the country’s Shi’ite Muslim minority were loyal to foreign countries due to their alleged foreign origin. He was also fined US$18,000.

Kuwait is split 70/30 between its Sunni and Shi’ite citizens. It has laws that forbid the maligning of either expression of Islam.

The Kuwait Times said, “Al-Mulaifi was accused of broadcasting untrue news on his Twitter blog about the existence of racial and sectarian division within the Kuwaiti community, and of accusing some citizens of affiliations to foreign countries. Al-Mulaifi was found guilty of undermining the Shiite doctrine and insulting Shiite scholars.”

He was also charged for his accusations that Kuwaiti parliamentarian Ahmed Lari was of non-Kuwaiti origin and for slandering a Shi’ite religious figure, Imam Al-Mahdi.

The court’s statement said he was convicted because he communicated “falsehoods about sectarian divisions” in Kuwait via Twitter and because he “insulted the Shiite faith and its scholars.” His tweets, said the ruling, “damaged Kuwait’s image.”

Al-Mulaifi was arrested in February after Shi’ite Kuwaitis, including members of the government, vociferously protested his tweets.

Twitter is popular in Kuwait, as it is in the rest of the Gulf States. Kuwait is not alone in seeing a surprising number of its users get in trouble for their tweets, usually statements of a religious nature. In neighboring Saudi Arabia, Hamza Kashgari tweeted statements that inspired public anger, which was in turn fanned by internal political elements resentful of the liberalization of the country. Kashgari was intercepted in Malaysia after fleeing the kingdom in fear.

Not all Kuwaitis support the sentence. Kuwait Times reported that international lawyer and arbitrator Labeed Abdal is calling on the Kuwaiti Government to clarify the limit of the rights and freedom of expression.

“Interpretation must be thoroughly studied and properly identified,” said Abdal, “In [Al-Mulaifi’s] case, they are mixing it with personality and politics. Also, punishment must be adjusted to the crime committed.”

One of the major complaints among those still enraged over the cryptic ending to Mass Effect 3 is that EA and Bioware essentially pulled a bait and switch. The company promised that players would be able to shape the story’s conclusion to a degree that wasn’t borne out by the final product. A blogger at the Better Business Bureau has now taken a look at those claims and determined that they actually have some merit.

One of the major complaints among those still enraged over the cryptic ending to Mass Effect 3 is that EA and Bioware essentially pulled a bait and switch. The company promised that players would be able to shape the story’s conclusion to a degree that wasn’t borne out by the final product. A blogger at the Better Business Bureau has now taken a look at those claims and determined that they actually have some merit.

In an ordinary computer network, data in the form of binary numbers are transferred from one machine (node) to another via some sort of electronic signal, either electrical or optical. The success of this transfer comes when the recipient has precisely the same set of binary figures that were sent. In a quantum network, the “data” is a quantum state—the particular configuration of an atom’s energy, spin, etc.—and the transfer of information is successful if the state is reproduced in a separate quantum system some distance away.

Extant quantum networks are capable of either receiving or sending signals, but not both simultaneously. A new experiment reported by Stephan Ritter et al. in Nature has achieved a simple two-node quantum network, in which a single photon successfully transferred the spin state of one rubidium atom to a second atom 21 meters away. Since the nodes are identical, both being rubidium atoms, signals are bi-directional. This type of quantum network should be scalable to encompass more than two nodes, leading to the possibility of larger networks with full communication between arbitrary nodes within them.

In an ordinary computer network, data in the form of binary numbers are transferred from one machine (node) to another via some sort of electronic signal, either electrical or optical. The success of this transfer comes when the recipient has precisely the same set of binary figures that were sent. In a quantum network, the “data” is a quantum state—the particular configuration of an atom’s energy, spin, etc.—and the transfer of information is successful if the state is reproduced in a separate quantum system some distance away.

Extant quantum networks are capable of either receiving or sending signals, but not both simultaneously. A new experiment reported by Stephan Ritter et al. in Nature has achieved a simple two-node quantum network, in which a single photon successfully transferred the spin state of one rubidium atom to a second atom 21 meters away. Since the nodes are identical, both being rubidium atoms, signals are bi-directional. This type of quantum network should be scalable to encompass more than two nodes, leading to the possibility of larger networks with full communication between arbitrary nodes within them.

Radioactivity revolutionized the 20th century, not only through weapons, electrical generation, and medical applications, but also by shining a light into Earth’s dark prehistory. Geologists in Darwin’s time could only indirectly guess at the deep time they were studying. The advent of radiometric dating allowed us to measure the age of the Earth and assign dates to the events laid out in the rock record.

But the science of geochronology hasn’t packed up and called it a day, of course. There’s always more to discover and improve upon. A pair of papers published recently in Science present changes to a couple of geologic clocks that will tweak previously calculated dates.

Megaupload founder Kim Dotcom spent the first few weeks after his arrest in prison, with the US government arguing that he posed a flight risk. But he was finally released from prison last month, and his wife recently gave birth to twin daughters.

Dotcom is now speaking out about his case as he continues to fight extradition to the United States. On Monday, TorrentFreak posted one of the most in-depth interviews Dotcom has done since his arrest. Dotcom told TorrentFreak he can “refute pretty much each and every claim in the indictment.”